[Advaita-l] Mimamsa Question: karmabheda in SAkAs (Jaimini Sutra 2.4.8 )

Bhadraiah Mallampalli vaidix at hotmail.com
Mon Jan 26 12:27:12 CST 2009


 
This is to explain what Kausitaki Brahmana says about immortality. 
 
Kausitaki says when a person offers agnihotra as prescribed (before sunrise
and before sunset) the devas become indebted to this person. When some
one does this with the knowledge (of connection to the morning agnihotra
to surya & evening agnihotra to agni, and other theological matters) Shruti
says he has effectively done this agnihotra it twice, and thus becomes
immortal. 
 
Now, doing twice is actually a fault of repetition isn't it? Obviously Shruti
can't itself let the rtviks violate the non-repetition rule. No, this can't be. 
Shruti implies, as the rite and the knowledge of the ritual happen in parallel
it qualifies as having done the yajna twice without really doing it one time
after another time; and that this qualifies for immortality of the sacrificer.
In other words Shruti says one should know both the parallel versions of
the yajna to qualify for immortality. (This explains logic behind devayana
marga). 
 
Therefore Shruti may be saying the devayana marga (rites plus
meditation) may itself be the sufficient for liberation. When this is done
(twice as per Shruti's terminology), in the outside world the true nature of
snake would also be known at the same time in parallel and in the inside
world the devas would be offered necessary oblations. This, I suppose
could be a restated position of purva mimamsaks. I mean they should be
arguing this way to justify their position, instead of just harping on the
rites alone, because by not using the argument they are ignoring a part of
Shruti itself. (Honestly they don't need the upanishats in Shruti now! no
cheating.)   
 
I don't know where this stands with regards to Sankara's fourth statement
that brahmajnana alone qualifies for immortality and ending of life and
death cycles may be just a restatement of the deva instead of rites +
knowledge of the rites or rites alone. 
 
Please advise,
 
Regards
Bhadraiah
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